This is for all the women who bent their heads so we could stand tall. Courage is not always loud. Sometimes you can be oblivious to it happening before your eyes. The courage that has gotten us here May not be heard, but it lives in the eyes of a…

I am a daughter. I am the daughter of a woman who smiled when I was born. That woman who did not stop smiling because of quibbles. I am the daughter of a brave woman who makes me braver every day. I am the daughter of my mother. The mother…

“In my whole life, I never felt love,” 15-year old Mejgan told Too Young to Wed. She was a child bride, and not the only one. In fact, every minute 28 girls like Mejgan get married before the age of eighteen. Today is International Day of the Girl and we…

Afghanistan lost an icon for human rights last week. Born in Kandahar, Sima Wali was a tireless advocate for Afghan refugees and women throughout her life. She was one of only three women at the historical U.N.-organized Bonn Conference after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. At the conference,…

By Frozan Sarwary Dear daughter, Wake up! I have woken up from ignorance today and I am waking you up so we can walk towards a brighter future together. From the day that God gave you to me, I have been thinking about how I should raise you so that…

Shukria Dellawar is an Afghan-American peace and security expert, writer, poet, and outspoken human rights advocate. She has worked with Afghan and global organizations including Women for Afghan Women, Women Thrive Worldwide and Center for International Policy and has long advocated for sustainable peace in Afghanistan. Recently, my colleague Marzia…

By Marzia When I left school in the fall of 1995, I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be able to return for six years. The years that followed could’ve been spent learning and improving myself, but they turned into the darkest and the scariest years of my life when the…

Written by Tahmina Aminy After growing up in war in Afghanistan, it has taken me a long time to cope with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I still wake up from horrific nightmares unable to breathe or move. The sound of bombs and rockets still shadows me through my dreams. I still…

Written by Fatima Farahmand in support of #WhereIsMyName A campaign to fight stigma around using women’s names in public in Afghanistan has taken the country by the storm and made headlines around the world. Much of the conversation has, rightly, been about how we should not hide women’s names, call…

Hangama Amiri is an up-and-coming Afghan-Canadian artist. She graduated from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was a Canadian Fulbright Fellow at Yale University. Currently, Amiri is an Artist-in-Residence at Lunenburg School of the Arts in Nova Scotia. Hangama has had exhibitions in London, Venice, New York, California, Morocco,…

The youth of Afghanistan are making their unapologetic mark on the world. Just over a month ago, the Afghan Girl Robotics Team flew to Washington, D.C. to show the world just how powerful a girl can be. The team were winners before the countdown even began, but their resilience earned…

This is a “Thank you” to all the women who provide the bulk of the world’s unpaid and unappreciated labor, but remain invisible. My hero is an exhausted mother Who sings lullabies to her kids Even though one day They may feel ashamed to call her by her name. *…